National Rankings

Accessibility and Affordability

CSU Dominguez Hills is listed among the top colleges and universities in the country according to a 2014Time Magazineranking that is based on criteria the White House plans to use to assess how well institutions serve students. Placing the highest importance on graduation rates, tuition and the percentage of students who receive federal Pell Grants, CSUDH ranked 33rd among 100 schools that topped the Time Magazine list. Time used data that 2,500 colleges and universities submitted to the Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System.

CSUDH ranked 29th and top the list for the lowest overall net cost to students in BestValueSchools.com’s 50 Best Value Colleges and Universities in California 2015.

AffordableCollegesOnline.org named CSU Dominguez Hills among the top 50 “Highest ROI Colleges in California” that deliver a solid return on investment, using data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), Carnegie Classification, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), and Payscale.com (2013).

AffordableSchools.Net named CSU Dominguez Hills among the top 30 colleges and universities across the United States that are both affordable and attractive. Institutions had to have tuition fees and total cost of attendance below the national average, and attractiveness was based on factors such as green spaces, views, and architecturally significant buildings (2014).

CSU Dominguez Hills was ranked 7th by Priceeconomics for Best Outcomes for Low Income Students (2015).

Campus Safety

CSU Dominguez Hills is among the “Top 50 Safest Universities in California” as ranked by StateUniversity.com (2013).

Community Service and Public Good

CSU Dominguez Hills was one of only four universities nationwide to received the 2014 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll's highest honor, the Presidential Award. CSUDH won in the general community service category. The university has been named to the honor roll since 2010 and in 2013 was a Presidential Award finalist.

For the fourth year in a row (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015) Washington Monthly ranked CSU Dominguez Hills among the top 15 best master’s university in the nation for “contribution to the public good.” Schools were rated in three broad categories: Social Mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students), Research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and PhDs), and Service (encouraging students to give something back to their country).

For its commitment to community engagement, CSU Dominguez Hills received the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification in 2010, which is valid until 2020. The classification recognizes the partnership of college and university knowledge and resources with those of the public and private sectors to enrich scholarship, research, and creative activity; enhance curriculum, teaching and learning; prepare educated, engaged citizens; strengthen democratic values and civic responsibility; address critical societal issues; and contribute to the public good.

Diversity

In U.S. News & World Report’s 2016 annual “Best Colleges” rankings CSU Dominguez Hills ranked 17th (tied) among the most ethnically diverse universities in the West offering bachelor’s and master’s degrees. To identify colleges where students are most likely to encounter undergraduates from racial or ethnic groups different from their own, U.S. News factors in the total proportion of minority students, leaving out international students, and the overall mix of groups. The data are drawn from each institution's student body for the 2014-2015 school year.

U.S. News & World Report also ranked CSU Dominguez Hills 5th (tied) among the most economically diverse universities in the West offering bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The university is scored by the percentage of undergraduates receiving federal Pell grants, which is considered a gauge for how many low-income undergraduates there are on a given campus. The economic data are drawn from each institution's student body for the 2013-2014 school year.

In its “Top 100 Minority Degree Producer” listing, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education ranks CSU Dominguez Hills 47th nationally in granting undergraduate degrees to minority students and 88th in granting master's degrees to minority students (2014). Based on 2012-2013 data provided to the U.S. Department of Education.

Graduate Programs

CSUDH's Nursing master’s degree programs are among the best graduate programs in U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Grad Schools” (2015).

Hispanic-Serving

Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education ranks CSU Dominguez Hills 33rd nationally in awarding bachelor’s degrees to Hispanic students (2015). Additionally the magazine ranks the university 82nd in undergraduate enrollment and 57th in graduate enrollment of Hispanic students. Based on 2013 data reported to National Center for Education Statistics/Integrated Post-Secondary Education Data System (NCES/IPEDS).

The Online College Database ranks CSU Dominguez Hills 26th in its lists of “33 Most Popular U.S. Colleges for Hispanic Students” (2013).

Career Outcomes

Educate To Career ranked CSU Dominguez Hills 85th among the “Top 100 Best Value Colleges” in its College Rankings Index that determines economic value added by each of the 1,200 colleges ranked. The index calculates the improvement in earnings and employability of persons who attended specific colleges, relative to those similarly situated in other colleges (2016).

The Brookings Institution scored CSUDH 88 out of 100 on their college scorecard which analyzed economic success of alumni, curriculum, STEM orientation, graduation rates and other value-added criteria.

The Economist ranked Cal State Dominguez Hills 63rd in alumni earnings above expectation. The financial magazine looked at the projected earnings of alumni had they studied elsewhere and compared it to their actual earnings after receiving a degree from CSUDH, estimating that alumni make an average of $6,120 more per year because of their education.

2015 CollegeNet Social Mobility Index ranked CSU Dominguez Hills 93rd out of more than 900 universities on how well it help students improve their economic status.

Online Programs

CSU Dominguez Hills was ranked 92nd in "Best Online Bachelor's Program" for its online bachelor's of nursing degree and 159th in Best Online MBA Program in the 2016 US News and World Report ranking

CSUDH made U.S. News and World Report’s “Short List: 10 online bachelor’s programs with most minority students”